myriamed partners with bit.bio to take its human cardiac platform to the global drug discovery market
Exclusive agreement opens a worldwide commercial channel for myriamed’s iPSC-derived cardiac cells and marks the start of the company’s international scale-up.
- myriamed’s cardiac cell portfolio will be offered exclusively through bit.bio, giving the Göttingen company access to a global commercial and distribution reach it could not build alone at this pace
- The agreement covers cryopreserved ventricular and atrial cardiomyocytes, a dilated cardiomyopathy disease model and real-time reporter cardiac cells, all on a genetically matched background
- myriamed products will be integrated into bit.bio’s CRISPR screening services, embedding myriamed’s cardiac biology into a wider discovery workflow
- The partnership is the first step in myriamed’s strategy to move from a specialist supplier to the reference standard for human cardiac models in preclinical drug development
Göttingen, Germany / Cambridge, UK, 23 September 2026:
myriamed GmbH, the human cardiac model specialist spun out of the Zimmermann Lab at University Medical Center Göttingen, today announced an exclusive partnership with bit.bio, the Cambridge-based human cell programming company. The agreement places myriamed’s iPSC-derived cardiac cell portfolio into a global commercial channel and represents a decisive step in the company’s international growth strategy.
For myriamed, the partnership answers a question that faces every deep-technology company built on world-class science: how to put that science in front of the researchers who need it, at the speed the market is moving. Rather than build a global sales and distribution organisation from Göttingen, myriamed has chosen a partner whose reach and technology platform amplify what myriamed does best. The result is that cardiac models developed over more than a decade of specialised research become available to drug discovery teams worldwide, without myriamed diverting capital or attention from the science that created them.
“myriamed has built its position at the forefront of human cardiac modelling through decades of dedicated research and technology development. Partnering with bit.bio gives us a great reach alongside a cell programming platform that complements our own work. Together, we have an opportunity not only to accelerate the adoption of human-relevant models, but also to help redefine drug development, placing human biology at the centre of faster, more predictive decision-making.” said Arne Östlind, CEO of myriamed GmbH.
Under the agreement, myriamed cardiomyocytes will be offered exclusively through bit.bio. The portfolio includes cryopreserved human iPSC-derived ventricular and atrial cardiomyocytes, a disease model for dilated cardiomyopathy, and real-time reporter cardiac cells that support phenotypic screening. Because the suite is derived from a single donor background, researchers gain a genetically matched system for studying disease phenotypes and for chamber-specific comparisons between atrial and ventricular biology. myriamed’s genetically matched disease models further allow investigation of cardiomyopathies and arrhythmic conditions.
The cells are supplied cryopreserved and ready to plate, removing the need for lengthy in-house differentiation protocols. They are also the foundation of myriamed's own three-dimensional Engineered Human Myocardium (EHM) platform and functional screening services, which take researchers from cells to contractile, tissue-level readouts and support chronic dosing and longer-term studies that two-dimensional monolayers cannot capture. The same cells are compatible with other three-dimensional systems, and through integration into bit.bio's CRISPR screening services they provide the physiological background for genetic screens.
“We are excited about the partnership with bit.bio. With our complementary expertise, built on decades of fundamental research, we are well prepared to serve customers from academia and industry. Our priority has always been the quality of human cell and tissue models, which we are now rolling out to the global drug discovery space.” said Prof. Wolfram-Hubertus Zimmermann, founder of myriamed GmbH.
The commercial logic sits on a scientific one. Cardiotoxicity remains among the leading causes of drug candidate attrition, driven by early reliance on models that do not reflect human cardiac biology. Regulatory frameworks such as the FDA Modernization Act 2.0 have accelerated the industry’s move towards human-relevant methods, and myriamed sees strong and growing demand from the global pharmaceutical industry for validated, reproducible human cardiac models. The partnership positions the company to meet that demand at scale.
Dr Emma Pepperell, CEO of bit.bio, said: “By bringing myriamed’s cardiomyocytes into bit.bio’s portfolio, we are providing researchers with the cells they need to model cardiomyopathy, use across applications ranging from 2D screening to 3D models, or run a safety screen, all in the same physiologically relevant background. Partnerships such as this can help accelerate the pharmaceutical industry’s shift towards more predictive, human-relevant approaches to drug development.”
myriamed’s platform extends from defined human iPSC-derived cells, including cardiomyocytes, skeletal myocytes and fibroblasts, to functional 3D engineered muscle and phenotypic screening technologies. The bit.bio agreement covers the cardiac portfolio; myriamed retains and continues to develop the wider platform, and the company expects the partnership model established here to inform how it brings further tissue systems to market.
